Soc. What is the charge? Well, a very serious charge, which shows a good deal
of character in the young man, and for which he is certainly not to be
despised. He says he knows how the youth are corrupted and who are their
corruptors. I fancy that he must be a wise man, and seeing that I am the
reverse of a wise man, he has found me out, and is going to accuse me of
corrupting his young friends. And of this our mother the state is to be the
judge. Of all our political men he is the only one who seems to me to begin in
the right way, with the cultivation of virtue in youth; like a good
husbandman, he makes the young shoots his first care, and clears away us who
are the destroyers of them. This is only the first step; he will afterwards
attend to the elder branches; and if he goes on as he has begun, he will be a
very great public benefactor.

Euth. I hope that he may; but I rather fear, Socrates, that the opposite will
turn out to be the truth. My opinion is that in attacking you he is simply
aiming a blow at the foundation of the state. But in what way does he say that
you corrupt the young?

Soc. He brings a wonderful accusation against me, which at first hearing
excites surprise: he says that I am a poet or maker of gods, and that I invent
new gods and deny the existence of old ones; this is the ground of his
indictment.

Euth. I understand, Socrates; he means to attack you about the familiar sign
which occasionally, as you say, comes to you. He thinks that you are a
neologian, and he is going to have you up before the court for this. He knows
that such a charge is readily received by the world, as I myself know too
well; for when I speak in the assembly about divine things, and foretell the
future to them, they laugh at me and think me a madman. Yet every word that I
say is true. But they are jealous of us all; and we must be brave and go at
them.